DeCipher this...

This is one of the dirtiest C code I have ever written. If you can decipher this, you can consider yourself GOD in C. I know its pretty dumb to ask you to do this without knowing the context, but then to be GOD, you have to have such supernatural powers. :)

uint64 next_ptr
uint64 *HEAP;
uint64 heap_size;

if((*(uint64*)(*(uint64*)next_ptr - 8) > *(uint64*)&HEAP) &&
((long)(*(uint64*)(*(uint64*)next_ptr - 8) - *(uint64*)&HEAP)/8 < heap_size/2))
{
memcpy((uint64*)next_ptr, (uint64*)(*(uint64*)next_ptr - 8), sizeof(uint64));
}

Life of a Grad Student

I guess I have been so busy (my inner mind says "Come on!!! accept it .. call it lazy").. OK.. so lazy that I had forgot to keep a tab on the comics at phdcomics.com... The reward for this laziness was that I had a good laugh for 15 minutes, catching up on all the strips since Oct '07 :).. See laziness is actually GOOD.

For all those, who are grad students you MUST read the comic strips in here. The author Jorge Cham, portrays the life of a grad student perfectly. For to-be grads, DONT READ THE COMICS NOW.. Bookmark the site and remember to read when you are, say 2 months into your grad life.

PS: If you are a new reader, read all the comics from the beginning in order to enjoy the comics better. Which means, as of today, you would have to catch up "only" 983 comic strips. So start reading sooon!!!!

Oooops..

For all those, who made the mistake of reading my last blog, please read this one as well. Supposedly, the online software that i mentioned in my previous blog will only file the resident tax form (1040EZ). International students have to file 1040NR-EZ. I dont know what difference this makes, but technically 1040NR-EZ is the correct form for international students. But hey, I filed 1040EZ last year and I filed 1040EZ this year as well, AND I have got a mail which says that my e-file has been accepted by IRS. So....

A 'Tax'ing Ordeal

YESS!!!!... I am done filing my taxes. Phew!!, I am sure, I dint spend this much time, to even make the money, for which I am paying taxes :).. But, if it was not for Intuit's Tax Freedom Project, this whole process would have been a bigger nightmare. Seriously the tax forms in the US are much worse than India's forms. Add to that all this complexity of Federal Tax and individual state taxes, sometimes, you just want to give up. But then, Uncle Sam generously held back 20% of my salary in taxes, when i owed him only 10%. So, I had to fight it out, and I WON!!!. :D

For all those people in the US, I would definitely recommend Intuit's Tax Freedom. You can e-file your taxes here, and if you have earned less than 30K last year, you can file for FREE.. BTW, this is a legitimate site referenced by a AZ Govt Site. So, I guess its safe to use.

Happy filing!!

Andaz Apna Apna

Well.. obviously this is not a review for Andaz Apna Apna. Firstly, I badly wanted to write about something, but couldn't think of anything, and secondly I was watching this movie yesterday for the zillionth time. And I never get bored of this movie. This is one of the best comedy movies ever. Importantly, comedy is part of it from the first scene to the last scene, unlike other comedy movies, which tend to cross the stupidity line somewhere in the movie. I remember watching this movie with my cousin, and we would rewind it and watch a few scenes over and over, and literally fall on the floor laughing. So famous is this movie still, that, dialogues in them, are part of our conversation now here at UoA. People literally wait for an opportunity to use them. Some of the famous dialogues

"Tum lo tum lo, tumhare birthday he."
"Tumhe than, man aur Dhan se sweekar karonga"
and the best.. "Sir lakh lakh ke pachas cheque honge sir"

If you cant recollect these dialogues, its time to watch it again. Enjoy!!

PS: I thought zillion was some number like billion trillion. It turns out that, its just a fictitious number, used to imply a very large number. Fact for the day :).